Realistic Philosophy Defended In A Philosophic Series (volume 2); Historical And Critical

Paperback | February 1, 2012

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887. Excerpt: ... GENERAL INTRODUCTION. REALISM: ITS PLACE IN THE VARIOUS PHILOS-OPHIES. There are three marked methods or tendencies in the various philosophic systems, ancient and modern. There is Realism, which holds that there are things and that man can know them. In a crude form it is the first philosophy, which is a generalization in an uncritical, undistinguishing manner of what seem primary truths. This is soon discovered to be unsatisfactory, and the speculative intellect adds to it to make it attractive; hence There is Idealism, which is Realism dressed and ornamented by the mind out of its own stores. There are shrewd minds which notice the additions; so There is Scepticism, which doubts of or denies received doctrines. This may be total, affirming that truth cannot be found, or partial, denying certain truths. Its most prevalent form is Agnosticism, which allows us to follow certain practical maxims, but has no faith in any supersensible truth. Some thinkers were interested to observe that the New Prestceton Review, in its Prospectus, avowed itself a defender of Realism. This, in a raw form, is the first, in a digested form will be the final, philosophy. But what is Realism? In answering this question we may seem to be explaining what does not need, what does not seem to admit of, explanation. Some may resent our statement; they feel as if it were an insult to their understandings, and as if we were addressing them as children. It is true that we cannot give an explanation of reality, which may explain other things, but itself needs no explanation; but we may so enunciate it as to separate it from ideas, imaginations, and everything else. "We know," which means that we know "things." This is the fact with which the intelligent mind starts, and this is the fir...